November 25, 1997. "At his first American press conference in 15 years,
British futurist Benjamin Creme stated that Maitreya
- World Teacher for the coming age-will be interviewed on a major American network
before the end of the year. This will be followed by appearances on other networks around
the world and, within months, will lead to a global satellite hook-up where Maitreya can
speak to all people simultaneously-in their own language." You can read all about it
and be prepared for the Great One. [click
here]

December 10, 1997. Larry King Live. Just when I thought Larry was doing some
good! (He had a very fine show on depression last week, featuring Art Buchwald,
Margo Kidder, Marianne Hartmann (?) and Dr. Kay
Jamison.) Tonight Larry featured an alleged psychic named James van Praagh. This guy
was special. All the billions and billions and billions of dead people are just waiting
for someone to give James their names. That's all it takes. Give him the name and presto!
the dead contact him in words, fragments of sentences or feelings of appearances. He could
"feel" Larry's dead parents and even pointed out where in the room these
feelings were coming from. James took phone calls on the air and, once given a name, he
started telling the audience what he was "hearing" or "feeling". He
fished for positive feedback and got it, indicating that he really was being contacted by
spirits who wanted to tell their loved ones that being dead ain't so bad when you've got a
guy like James to talk to on Larry King Live.

Of course, James has a book out with a can't-miss title: Talking to Heaven. (Talking
to God and Talking to Angels have already been taken.) And he has a great fan
who has put up a WWW site to keep us
informed of James' books, tapes, upcoming products, tours and appearances. I predict
continued success for James, as long as he never gets a bad message from any of the
billions and billions of dead people who never get a busy signal when they call Mr.
van Praagh.

November 30, 1997. "Acupuncture goes mainstream" by Brenda Biondo in USA Weekend
(Nov. 30, 1997) contained very little skepticism about this controversial medical method.
(The AMA is highly skeptical of acupuncture, it said.) The author passed on a few
anecdotes and testimonials about how after acupuncture "the pain was gone."
Little concern was shown either by the author or those giving the testimonials for such
things as the possibility that the end of the pain had little or nothing to do with the
acupuncture. It was enough to find support from "a federal panel of experts,"
i.e., the quacks who stack the National Institutes of Health Alternative Medicine
division. They're claiming that there is "clear evidence" (whatever that means)
that acupuncture is "effective" (whatever that means) for treating nausea caused
by anesthesia, chemotherapy or pregnancy. (Why it wouldn't work for nausea from other
causes remains a mystery.) Acupuncture is also said to be "effective" "for
pain after dental surgery."

In addition to the self-interested testimony of the NIH alternative medicine panel,
Biondo quoted another self-interested party, Janet Konefal of the University of Miami's
Center for Complementary Medicine, as saying that physicians are "definitely warming
up to acupuncture." Now that is a scientific statement based, no doubt, on at least
two conversations with her fellow researchers. If, as the Medical Acupuncture Association
says, there are only about 4,000 American doctors using acupuncture, then I would say that
not too many are warming up to it.

Throughout her article, the author implied that acupuncture may be effective in
treating such diseases as cystic fibrosis, cancer, drug addiction and Parkinson's disease.
In a strange twist as to what ought to drive medical research, it is claimed that
"public interest" in acupuncture is what is motivating hospitals, research
centers and insurance companies to take acupuncture seriously. What next? Psychic surgery
because the public demands it?

A sidebar to the panegyric for acupuncture stated that there are two main theories as
to how it works, but it did not seem concerned to note that one of the theories is a metaphysical theory
which can never be tested scientifically, while the other is an empirical theory and
falsifiable. It is doubtful the author knows the difference between an empirical and a
metaphysical theory, or what 'falsifiability" means. In any case, the empirical
theory noted speculates that the needle pricks stimulate the release of endorphins and
other "chemicals and hormones" but the likelihood that these chemicals and
hormones will cure cystic fibrosis or cancer seems near zero.

July 5, 1997. On the front page of the "Family, Religion & Ethics" section of the Sacramento
Bee, past
life regression therapy for children was featured. "Can echoes of past lives
haunt kids? Reincarnation is topic of book for parents," reads the headline. The
article is by Edward Colimore of Knight-Ridder Newspapers and pretends to be a review of
Carol Bowman's book, Children's Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child.
Colimore's article is actually an uncritical presentation of a metaphysical belief in
reincarnation and its application by hypnotherapists.

Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that many hypnotherapists have no formal
training in psychology or medicine and that often attendance at a weekend training seminar
is all one needs to become a certificated hypnotherapist. According to Margaret Singer and
Janja Lalich,

There are no licensing requirements, no prerequisites for training, and no
professional organization to which those who hypnotize others are accountable. You can be
a real estate agent, a graphic artist, an English teacher, or a hairdresser and also call
yourself a hypnotherapist by hanging a certificate on your wall that states you took as
few as eighteen hours of courses in hypnosis.

This lack of oversight leads to all sorts of abuses and malpractice. ("Crazy"
Therapies, p. 53)

The only voice of opposition to Bowman's thesis that the behavioral problems of
children are due to past life memories was a short paragraph noting that the Catholic
Church does not accept the doctrine of reincarnation. In another context, this
matter-of-fact juxtaposition of opposing metaphysical views would be acceptable. In the
context of an article aimed at encouraging parents of children with problems to seek out a
hypnotherapist to find out what past life is harming their child, the comment about
Catholic disbelief appears out-of-place at best, and at worst could be taken as an attempt
to portray Catholics as hopelessly out-of-touch with New Age ideas.

No mention is made in the article that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that
past life regression therapy works. There is ample evidence that many people can
"recall" past lives, whether hypnotized or not. Fantasizing about having lived
before is not difficult. There is ample evidence that some people have very vivid and
detailed "recollections." And there are numerous anecdotes about people
"feeling better" after having fantasized about a past life. But there is no
evidence that (1) the memories are of previous incarnations or that (2) any improvement in
health has been caused by remembering anything from this or a previous life, except
perhaps remembering to take one's medications.

No mention was made that past-life regression therapy is considered "pure
quackery" by the American Psychiatric Association. No mention of critics of
regression techniques, such as Singer and Lalich, was mentioned. In their evaluation of
several New Age therapies, Singer and Lalich write:

Because objective research on regression techniques is limited, the
assumptions about regression remain merely myths based on anecdotal reports from
enthusiastic proponents. ("Crazy"
Therapies, p. 26)

Colimore's article provides several of Bowman's anecdotes. She claims she was healed of
a severe lung ailment after learning that she had died of consumption in the 19th
century and then died again in a Nazi gas chamber. A year after her "healing,"
her 5-year old son, Chase, was cured of his fear of loud noises by discovering that he had
been a black soldier during the Civil War. Bowman offers as evidence of the wondrous
nature of past-life regression therapy the fact that her son, now 14, is a drummer.
Finally, Bowman's daughter, Sarah, was cured of her fear of house fires when she
discovered she had previously died in one.

A skeptic would say that all of these remembered events are from this life, not a past
one. Their source is probably television, movies, stories heard or books read. A critic
might reply: Who cares? As long as her lungs got better, the boy overcame his fear
of noise and the girl overcame her fear of fire, what difference does it make whether
their memories are of past lives or not? They got better. Isn't that all that matters?
What harm is there in a little fiction if it helps?

The harm is in the method and the claim that it has broader application. The method
makes a mockery out of science and the quest for knowledge. Science is not built on
anecdotes and metaphysical notions of the soul. It is built upon observation and
controlled studies. The claim that these anecdotes have broader application is likely to
have the effect of harming children whose parents will be convinced that their children's
behavior, which is caused by a brain disorder or hyperthyroidism, etc., is actually due to
a past life experience. Such gullible parents will take their children to a hypnotherapist
instead of to a physician. As a result, some children may very well die because they did
not receive proper treatment early enough.

Instead of comparing the claims of Bowman to the work of a real scientist and
psychologist (such as Aaron Beck) or
psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg,
Colimore reinforces Bowman's claims by quoting Barbara Lane, another past-life
regressionist. Lane is even cited for her theory that "regression experiences...could
be genetic memories. The life experiences of ancestors imprinted on genes and passed
down." No genetic scientist and no neurobiologist
would admit such a possibility for the workings of memory. Yet,
Colimore leaves the reader without mentioning the absurdity of this theory of memory, much
less without describing how memories are created by neural connections in complex ways
unfathomable by the likes of Bowman and Lane. He simply notes that Lane says that
"some people" believe the stories are based on memories of things read, etc.,
but whose source is forgotten and "others" think that past life memories are the
result of imagination and knowledge of the past. No attempt is made to evaluate these
different explanations, giving the impression they are of equal value and weight.

In any case, Colimore simply counterbalances the notions of skeptics and Catholics with
Bowman's assertion that nothing but reincarnation adequately explains the anecdotes of
children's past life regressions she recounts in her book. Bowman demonstrates her
ignorance of children when she claims that some of her cases involve children who are
"too young to read or watch serious TV documentaries." They may be too young to
read, but if their hearing is not impaired, they can hear stories and listen to TV. If
their vision is not impaired they can watch TV at a very early age. Bowman also seems
unfamiliar with the vividness and pliability of children's capacity to perceive, imagine, confabulate and
remember.

Bowman's claim that some of her subjects have birthmarks or birth defects which
correspond to fatal wounds received in an earlier life is especially unconvincing.
Colimore cites the research of professor Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia as
supporting this hypothesis. A similar claim is made by those who claim they've been abducted by aliens:
unaccounted for marks on their bodies are taken as proof they've been abducted and
experimented on. Maybe alien abductees should consider the possibility that their marks
come from previous lifetimes!

In all fairness, it should be noted that Bowman does indicate that it would be
scientifically useful to extract from her anecdotes some general principles. She provides
the following four signs as evidence that a child's past life story has
"substance."

1. Whenever the past-life memories had substance, the children often talked about
them in a matter-of-fact tone.

And if they did not talk about them in a matter-of-fact tone, I guess that was proof
that the memories did not have "substance." This claim says little more than
"I believe the stories are true when the kids use a certain tone." Very
scientific.

2. Whenever the past-life memories had substance, the children told the stories with
consistent details.

This says little more than "I believe stories which are consistent and
detailed." (A reasonable person might consider a few other qualities as being
essential to a believable story, such as whether the story is likely to be true or not.)

3. Whenever the past-life memories had substance, the children had knowledge beyond
their experience.

This says little more than "I believe a child's past life story is true if I also
believe the child could not have gotten this information from any other source. Logicians
call this begging the question.

4. Whenever the past-life memories had substance, the children exhibited
corresponding behavior and traits, such as phobias, birth marks or chronic physical
conditions.

This says little more than "I believe a child's past life story is true if I can
find some behavior, trait, phobia, birth mark or physical condition to relate to the
story. In other words, the limits of my credulity are the limits of my imagination.

The main appeal of such notions is to the desire to live forever. If you know the four
signs, says Bowman, "you can catch the magic moment." For, "when a child
speaks so innocently and knowingly about living before....it is firsthand testimony to the
truth that our souls never die." Perhaps. On the other hand, Children's Past Lives may also be firsthand
testimony to ignorance of science, to gullibility and, above all, to wishful thinking.

I guess I should be grateful, however, for the small relief from the barrage of
articles and television "documentaries" on this "Roswell
Anniversary Weekend."